'Gotcha' Report Goes After Parkway Spending On Travel

"You Paid for It" investigator Elliott Davis with Fox2 News met with Parkway School District Superintendent Keith Marty, and questioned why with spending cuts of $9.6 million for the district he was spending $10,900 for a conference in Florida.

Fox2 reports Marty, assistant superintendent and five principals are going on the 3-day trip in June. Registration for the six administrators was about $3,600. Airfare about $3,000, food $900, hotel $3,500.

Marty responded that the community expects Parkway district to be up on things—like going to this conference in Orlando. Lindbergh district isn't going, St. Charles city isn't going, Fox2 reports.

Marty said the conference would provide information about more efficiency in districts, and add to the plan Parkway has already started.

Earlier this year, Parkway slashed the number of staff at school offices, and subject specialists, in a cost-cutting and efficiency measure. 

See video of the "YOU Paid for It" interview by clicking here

On Monday, a Parkway District spokeswoman gave a statement in response to inquiries about the issue.

Many high schools today haven’t kept up with the changing needs of students. We force them to take only the classes we offer at any given school and only at certain times during the week. Yet with technology and some creative scheduling, we could offer classes in the evenings or on weekends, and we could offer more courses for students. For example, if we can only afford to offer Japanese or AP Calculus at one of our schools, why don’t we allow students at the other schools to take the classes if they’re willing to drive to the school? Those are the kinds of things we’re looking at for our kids.